I apologize to the readers who e-mailed me the week after the Broncos’ final game to criticize, condemn, chide and carp about coach Mike Shanahan.
I responded that their timing was poor and they were insensitive to the Broncos’ situation because of the sad event that occurred in the hours after the season abruptly ended. I believed there should be a moratorium on disparaging analysis of the team, the players and the coaches until a suitable mourning period had passed.
Then Shanahan promptly fired the Broncos’ defensive coordinator and a defensive line coach.
Life and football go on. A little too quickly, I thought.
But if the Broncos are resuming football-related actions – hiring and firings – so should I and e-mailers.
Jim Bates is an outstanding selection as the new assistant coach/defense, given his tenure in a similar position with the Miami Dolphins and if he is given skilled players. Bates has, players say, an infectious enthusiasm for the game and probably should have been named Dolphins coach in 2004 instead of Nick Saban. He took over as interim coach the final seven games of 2004 and guided the woeful Dolphins to three victories.
Bates also was born 28 days before me, and we were students at the University of Tennessee at the same time. He played linebacker. I did not.
Will the defense’s slogan in 2007 be “Welcome to the Bates Motel”?
As Larry Coyer, who lost a game, then one of his starting players, then his job in a matter of days, departs, it should be noted that if the Broncos’ offense had performed with some level of expertise this past season, the defensive coordinator would have gotten a bonus check, not a pink slip.
In the final accounting, the Broncos scored 319 points, an average of 19.9 per game – a totally unacceptable total.
If the Broncos had scored 27 points in every game, they would have finished 13-3.
Oh, but they couldn’t score 27 points in most games. Yet, there was a time when the Broncos scored 27 or more points in 11 regular-season games.
No, I’m not talking about That Famous Quarterback.
In 2000, when the Broncos had Brian Griese and Gus Frerotte splitting the season as starters, the Broncos scored 36, 42, 33, 44, 30, 27, 38 in three consecutive games, 31 and 38 again. They ended up 11-5 and averaged 30.3 points a game.
Only once in Shanahan’s dozen years have the Broncos scored fewer than 319 points – in 1999, the season after T.F.Q.B. retired.
When the Broncos won back-to-back NFL championships, they scored 472, followed by a team record 501. They have scored 381 points or more in nine seasons.
Ten more touchdowns this season – or one more in the final game – and there wouldn’t be much criticizing, condemning, chiding and carping.
Broncos opponents scored 305 points (19.1 per), and the defensive coordinator got fired. The Broncos averaged 19.9, and the role of the man responsible for the offense is secure for years to come.
Ahem: Cornerbacks Champ Bailey and the late Darrent Williams scored 12 of the Broncos points. So, the offense barely reached 300. The offense gave up 18 points in return touchdowns, so the Broncos’ defense really allowed fewer than 300.
I will not demand or even suggest that Shanahan be fired (as if my or your opinion will make a difference to owner Pat Bowlen) because he remains a future Hall of Fame coach and has just one losing season in 12 while winning eight postseason games, including two Super Bowls. But Shanahan’s the one, not Coyer or assistant head coach Mike Heimerdinger or offensive coordinator Rick Dennison or offensive assistant Jeremy Bates (Jim’s son), who failed the head coach. Shanahan chose the starting quarterback, the starting running back and all the players on the roster and provides that “War and Peace”-length playbook. The acclaim and the blame are solely on Shanahan’s master mind.
I’m very disappointed that this season Shanahan went more conservative than Rush Limbaugh. The Broncos scored 30-points-plus three times and were dull.
In Shanahan’s first 11 seasons the Broncos scored 30-points-plus in 67 games and were exciting.
The day before Shanahan returned to Denver to become head coach of the Broncos, he said: “I always will run a wide-open offense.”
In 2006 the Broncos ran a closed-shut offense.
Shanahan should apologize and not let it happen again.
Staff writer Woody Paige can be reached at 303-954-1095 or at wpaige@denverpost.com.
